Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts

"You like cabbage. Brussels sprouts are just like cabbages, only smaller." 

I was slicing a large cabbage last night to make my family's favorite St. Patrick's Day side dish. I know I am more than a week early but I had time over the weekend to cook the corned beef and it was already on sale at the grocery store. So why wait! Maybe she's right, I thought. My daughter returned from college with a love for this vegetable. She prepares them by roasting slices on a tray drizzled in oil and topped with salt in a hot oven. I do like them when she makes them. 

Yet I never think to buy this vegetable. I'm more of a corn and green beans cook. Maybe it was my college experience. My own mom never served me brussels sprouts and I recall during my freshman year they being a regular choice at the dining hall. They were boiled and looked like little brains and many jokes were made about them. Those snide jokes stuck and for my whole life I never bought or cooked brussels sprouts.

As I sliced the cabbage last night, I started to see brussels spouts in a new light. I love coleslaw. I love this dish my mother-in-law taught me how to make that I'm preparing now - fried cabbage with egg noodles.* Maybe I'll start to buy brussels spouts. "They're just a small member of the cabbage family," my daughter reminded me.

Now I wonder what I can tell my daughter to change HER present mindset about raw tomatoes and anything seafood?!


*Click HERE to see the recipe for Galusca, the cabbage/noodle dish in my March 16, 2014 SOL post!

14 comments:

  1. I like how you said Brussels sprouts look like tiny brains. So true! I need to get them into my diet too. I like that idea. Thank you.

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  2. Foods have personal stories. That's amazing! I love the way you looked at the development of your attitude toward this interesting vegetable. Cousin to the cabbage.

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  3. I love Brussels Sprouts and I am sure you will be glad you gave them another try. It is funny the associations food has for us! Yum- I would love some corned beef with all the fixings!

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  4. I love brussel sprouts, too. One of my favorite meals is oven roasted brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, parsnips, cauliflower and little red potatoes .

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  5. That recipe looks like fun to try, Sally. Thanks for sharing it.

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  6. That recipe looks like fun to try, Sally. Thanks for sharing it.

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  7. Thoughts while chopping- love it!
    Somehow in your short piece I got a whole history of vegetable eating in America, from the traditional corned beef and cabbage to the corn and green beans (most likely canned) of our youth to the sliced cabbage roasted in olive oil that our kids are teaching us.

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  8. Thoughts while chopping- love it!
    Somehow in your short piece I got a whole history of vegetable eating in America, from the traditional corned beef and cabbage to the corn and green beans (most likely canned) of our youth to the sliced cabbage roasted in olive oil that our kids are teaching us.

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    Replies
    1. I love how you read my post with a history lens.

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  9. Funny how a seemingly insignificant experience can inform the rest of our lives. I doubt that you'll ever forget the boiled, brainy sprouts from the college cafeteria. Sounds like your daughter's sprout enthusiasm is the trick to giving them a second chance.

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  10. I grew up on corn, green beans, and peas. My mother liked brussel sprouts, but she boiled them to death and I couldn't bear to eat one. I, too, have begun to acquire a taste for the roasted baby cabbage:).
    I love how you took an ordinary task and made it a story:).

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  12. I grew up on corn, green beans, and peas. My mother liked brussel sprouts, but she boiled them to death and I couldn't bear to bite into a slippery little green ball. But, I have now grown to enjoy these little baby cabbages. I love how you took an ordinary task and turned it into a story:).

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  13. But see, I don't dislike fish for visual reasons......I dislike them because they taste gross!!! :)

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